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Winners of MIT Sloan's Climate CoLab Contest Announced

MIT (News - Alert) Sloan School of Management's Climate
CoLab announced today the winners of its 2013 round of contests,
which seek creative new ideas to address global climate change.

The eighteen simultaneous contests covered a broad set of sub-problems
that lie at the heart of the climate change challenge, including:
decarbonizing energy supply, changing social attitudes and behavior,
adapting to climate change, geoengineering, transportation efficiency,
and others. Some contests were hosted in collaboration with
organizations such as Carbon War Room, the Union of Concerned
Scientists, Transition US and ICLEI: Local Governments for
Sustainability.

The 28
winning proposals will be presented by their authors at the MIT
Crowds and Climate conference on November 6-8.

"Systems like Linux and Wikipedia have shown that by allowing people
around the world to think and work together, solutions to complex
problems can be developed that otherwise would not have been possible,"
says MIT Sloan Professor Thomas
Malone, director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
(CCI (News - Alert)), and principal investigator for the Climate CoLab project. "We are
using this approach in the Climate CoLab to create solutions to one of
the most complex and challenging problems of our time-climate change."

Rob Laubacher, the CCI Associate Director who manages the Climate CoLab,
was impressed by the variety and expertise of the teams who submitted
proposals. "Winning authors included staff members of global
organizations like the UN Development Programme and eBay (News - Alert); climate
scientists and university researchers; professionals in the oil, gas and
mining industries; and Executive Directors of NGOs in India, Nicaragua,
Canada, and South Africa," he says. "Once again we need to thank our
more than 90 Advisors, Fellows, and Judges who directed the contests and
selected these winners from a large pool of strong proposals. They put
much time and effort into their selection and it was not an easy task."

The Crowds
and Climate conference, where the winners will present, will be held
at the MIT campus on November 6-8, and will explore the role that new
technology-enabled approaches-such as crowdsourcing, social media, and
big data-can play in developing creative new ideas and taking action on
climate change. The conference will have a strong interactive component,
and will feature top speakers from innovative businesses, government
initiatives, and NGOs who are incorporating crowd-based approaches in
their projects and operations.

"The project's growth is very exciting," says Malone. "The Climate CoLab
community and activity has been doubling or tripling with each annual
contest, and there are now over 10,000 registered members. This shows
that there are many smart and creative people around the globe engaging
with these issues, and we're very proud of this year's winners.

"We're also looking forward to next year when we can partner with more
organizations and companies to tailor contests, and when we expect
participants to be able to create integrated combinations of proposals
at the national and global levels.

"By bringing together experts, policy makers, business people, and many
others, we hope the Climate CoLab can help plan-and gain support
for-better climate actions than anything we humans would otherwise have
done."